How could anyone be so awful?

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I just went to one of the aquarium shops I go to and they had a sign on their big tank and no fish ...

I just went to one of the aquarium shops I go to and they had a sign on their big tank and no fish in it....

Someone broke into the shop and dumped insecticide in the tank and killed all of the fish.

I'm really upset about it. What would make someone do that? It's just horrible.

Have heard this same scenario repeated on several different forums over the last few years. Who knows why /if this happened. Other stories similar to this describe all tanks being dosed with some mysterious toxinand all fish in all tanks dead.
No further post's ever announce whether culprit's were apprehended.
Could also be poor care by employee resulted in fish die off ,and a burglar would be handy explanation.

I know these people. Although it is possible that they are lying about it, I don't think they are likely to engage in criminal conduct (yes, making a false report to the police will land you in jail.) The shop has been there for years. They'd hardly suddenly just kill a huge tank of cichlids by neglect. Unless it's somebody with a personal grudge who is known to someone, it's unlikely the cops will catch the offenders. Most burglaries by strangers are unsolved, unless you have priors and/or are dopey enough to leave fingerprints or dna at the scene.

I am more apt to view this (if indeed it happened),,as pure vandalisim ,perhaps by disgruntled customer or former employee.
No burglar worth his salt ,would break in to an establishment and not leave with armfuls of merchandise but be content with merely poisoning a few fish.
That's what always struck me bout this often repeated scenario.Usually nothing was damaged, (outside of a lock or window)nothing stolen.

Sorry, you misunderstand what burglary means (in my jurisdiction, at least). It just means to unlawfully enter premises for the purpose of committing an offence. The offence doesn't have to be theft. Unlawfully entering to commit criminal damage is burglary.

It is pretty obvious that whoever did it was either acting maliciously or has serious social problems. I just cant understand why somebody would kill living things. They could throw paint around, or break furniture, or damage property - but to kill fish just makes it that much worse, in my opinion. If you have a grudge against the business owner, wrecking his things will hurt him, why hurt the innocent fish?

In my neck of the woods Kansas city, burglars generally burglarize, (take stuff). Usually two or three homicides here per night. Police in my jurisdiction seldom respond to rough area's, and would view what you describe as vandalisim and suggest the owners report it to their insurance company unless...somthing got stolen.
I'm afraid I am one of those who kill animals and fish while hunting and fishing. I enjoy eating the game I shoot or the fish I catch, but would agree that there isn't much sport in killing an aquarium full of fish.
Any dummy can do that.

Some people have no empathy for life - especially those people who think "it's only fish".

Yes, I think that's what it boils down to. As I said, there would be ways of taking out a grudge (if that's what it was) that didn't involve killing the fish. I can't understand not caring about them - as 1077 said, it's one thing to hunt and fish for food, but another to knock off a tank of pet fish for no reason.

I work at the Petco in Harrisburg, PA, and we got a warning from the nearest Petco to our store because someone went in their store and poisoned all the saltwater fish and killed them. I still don't understand why anyone would do that. Their is absolutely nothing to be gained from that situation at all, and I feel so bad for the fish who had no chance whatsoever... I hope both of those jerks get run over by a Long John Silver's truck, because they both deserve a very ironic death.